And I’ve already started seeing it in the stores!
Ah, my favorite time of year. Time to enjoy the sights, scents and sounds of the holidays…:)
October 12, 2009
December 24, 2008
Christmas memories
This being the Eve of Christmas Eve, I can’t help but reflect back on some of my past Christmases.
As a child we were a rather poor family. I know at one time Toys For Tots accepted good, quality USED toys because I was one of those kids receiving them!
I remember one year when we lived on Main Street in a suburbian town not far from the Connecticut border. These guys came to the door of our apartment. My mother answered the door and then shooed us kids into the other room. But we kept the door open a crack and could see two large boxes filled with toys. And they weren’t new. No new doll I’ve ever seen arrives out of the package without clothes on!
And then there were years we gave back. My mother would gather up some of our old toys and we would drive to downtown Worcester and drop these used toys off.
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Another year when I was very young and we lived in the same apartment I can remember waking to see my mother passing by my room. She peeked in and saw I was awake.
“You’d better go back to sleep. Santa’s on the roof.”
Of course I lay there listening for sleighbells the rest of the night…
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While living in the same apartment, our upstairs neighbor, Mrs. L, called us kids up to her apartment on Christmas morning to see the huge hole that Santa had made in her wall when he came into her apartment. To this day I have no idea how that hole really got there!
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The first year my step-father experienced our huge family Christmases sticks out in my mind. By now I was a young adult, about 21. My siblings were much younger. My mother had gone to Midnight Mass with the sister who is a year younger than myself. The youngest ones were sleeping. So it was up to me and my step-father to put the presents under the tree.
I knew all the hiding spots. The huge walk-in bathroom closet. The bedroom closet. The hallway. I had made three trips back and forth to the tree with Dad helping all the way.
“We still have the hallway closet to get to,” I announced.
“You mean there’s MORE?” he asked. All I could do was laugh. Welcome to the family, Dad.
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A funny story from ten years ago. My husband and I had just moved into our house and we decided to get a real tree.
We went to our beloved Jim’s (have been going there for about 20 years now). Picked out our tree. And my husband tied it to the roof of his red Chevy Cavalier. But he didn’t feel it was secure enough. He slipped some of the rope through the passenger side window and told me to hold it.
Luckily we only lived 15 minutes away. Still he kept stopping every five miles to make sure the tree was still on the roof! And I very dutifully held the rope all the way home! We still joke about that to this day.
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I cannot really recall any favorite toys. However, as a teenager I lived for any kind of Duran Duran paraphenila I found under the tree. One year I got a Duran Duran jacket, hat, scarf and buttons (not to mention all kinds of posters, books, etc.).
And then there was 1989. I was 18 and had just started working at a very prestigious company. My mother convinced me to apply for my first Sears card (my very first credit card of ANY kind!). I applied and got it. No sooner did I get it I spotted a very cool, state -of-the-art keyboard at Sears. It cost $200.00. My mother convinced me to buy it for myself for Christmas. She even made me wrap it up and put it under my bed! Haha!
Would you believe I still have that keyboard today and now my daughter plays with it every now and then? Not a damn thing wrong with it, almost 20 years later!
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This one is my favorite…
Every Black Friday my mother and I would go Christmas shopping. It was a tradition. I was older by now, again probably around 21 or 22.
We were in a Hallmark store and I saw the cutest little Christmas pin. It was a Santa on a snowball. The Santa had one googly eye and there was a little pull string with a candy cane attached to it. When you pulled the string Santa would go around and around on the snowball. My mother caught me playing with it and bought it without me knowing. Then she handed it to me in the car. I still have it this day and pin it every year to my coat. And Santa still goes around and around on that snowball!
Ah, happy memories…that’s what’s Christmas is all about.
Somewhere in the world right now…
IT’S CHRISTMAS!
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL MY FELLOW BLOGGERS OUT THERE AROUND THE WORLD!
Straight No Chaser
I had the pleasure of listening in this morning when Straight No Chaser made a guest appearance on the Zito and Karen Blake show on Oldies 103.3. Wow! These guys are tremendous (not to mention easy on the eyes 
).
I loved their rendition of “Carol of the Bells” but instead of singing the usual lyrics, it was “Zito and Karen, Zito and Karen” all the way through…it was hysterical and very well done! Unfortunately I did not get to stick around for the live in-studio performance of “The Twelve Days of Accapella”. But I do think I will be buying the CD…unless someone was smart enough to get it for me for Christmas!
December 22, 2008
Christmas sounds…
If you haven’t yet, be sure to check these guys out…they are awesome!
Christmas sights…
from Jim's Christmas trees
Tweety and Sylvester
Merry Christmas from my house to yours!
Lovin’ all the snow!
Since Friday my area has received at least a whopping foot of snow! I’m lovin’ it! It really makes it feel like Christmas is here!
A Christmas Carol
I recently had the pleasure of taking in a very well done performance of “A Christmas Carol” at Worcester’s new Hanover Theatre.
The show was well structured and choreographed. Neat special effects on the entrances of Marley and the Ghost of Christmas Future. But I would not recommend taking young children as these acts are quite startling.
The theatre is beautiful: very nicely decorated for the holidays, gold trim everywhere, sparkling chandaliers.
But even with the beauty of this building, it still lacks a few things: (1) For a place that can hold 2,345 people, it does not allow for enough “mingling” space for all these people. There should be one way in to the theatre and one way out of the theatre to avoid this. At intermission it was like a huge shufflethon just to get a cookie and a glass of punch! Which brings my next complaint (2) allegedly FOOD is not allowed in the theatre (but of course without all that “mingling” space out in the lobby, where the hell do they think you can eat that cookie? In the bathroom?); however, BEVERAGES ARE allowed! How does that figure? Do they know it’s easier to vaccum up cookies crumbs than to mop up sticky punch from a rug? My guess is that it is due to the fact that they have a BAR at this theatre and they certainly don’t want anyone who spent good money on booze to not be able to drink it in the theatre. Of course they don’t take into consideration the drunkeness of these people and the fact that they will be sloshing their drinks around all over the place, causing a mess to their beautiful new rugs and their floors…oh well.
But the play was great just the same, aside from the crowds, cookies and punch. And it was free, so what do I care, right?
December 16, 2008
Ten movies or specials I can’t get through the holidays without
In my order of opinion:
10. “Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer”
9. “A Charlie Brown Christmas”
8. “Frosty The Snowman”
7. “White Christmas”
6. “Christmas Vacation”
5. “The Grinch” (movie or cartoon–both are great!)
4. “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear”
3. “Christmas at Boston Pops”
2. “A Christmas Story”
1. “It’s a Wonderful Life”
Speaking of movies, I just watched “Fred Claus” for the first time. Not bad for a holiday flick, once you get over all the Santaishness and North Polishness of the whole thing. But not being a big Vince Vaughn fan, I have to give it a “5″.
I love Christmas music but…
there is one little song out there that I just cannot bring myself to listen to. No, it’s not “Dominic The Donkey” (although that one does leave me with a headache). It’s the song “The Christmas Shoes”.
As soon as that piano starts up, I turn the volume down or turn the channel. No offense to the group New Song or the tune itself. The song is beautiful, well written and the meaning behind it is timeless and one we should all heed. However, as someone who lost their mother to cancer ten years ago, I cannot bear to listen to a song that features a little boy pleading for a pair of shoes for his mother as her last Christmas gift.
I’ve tried to listen to the song. And I have heard it in full. Until I decided I just couldn’t hear it any longer. I even saw the movie. I watched it while working out on the treadmill. Do you know how hard it is to jog at 4.0 with tears streaming down your face?
This is Christmas. I want to be happy. I don’t want to be crying a river as I’m speeding down the highway (which happened the first time I heard this song). Just writing this is bringing tears to my eyes.
No offense to anyone who likes the song. I like it too. I just can’t bear to listen to it.
So when Christmas is over and all the Christmas songs have stopped being played on the radio, “Christmas Shoes” is not one that I will miss hearing.
bunchesofos